More Double Dummy

January 5th, 2010  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  No Comments 

Lots of upcoming hands from the recent Edgar Kaplan regional, but first, this double dummy problem from my dad.

Dealer: Vul:		North
		♠	43
		♥	A98
		♦	T43
		♣	AT983
West				East
♠	JT9			♠	Q87
♥	KQJT6			♥	73
♦	J			♦	K987652
♣	J642			♣	K
		South
		♠	AK652
		♥	542
		♦	AQ
		♣	Q75

South ducked the heart King lead, and West continued with the Jack. South has losers in spades and clubs, and 2 in hearts, but could pitch a heart on a long club (given time to set it up and trumps drawn). Thus, West must be prevented from gaining the lead to cash a heart while declarer is at work. To do so South uses an avoidance play in trumps by winning the second heart and leading a spade towards hand, planning to duck if East plays the Queen (if he leaps, declarer will be able to draw trumps and work on clubs). If not, declarer must win, cross to dummy in clubs, and lead a spade up again.

If East ducks, South exits in spades, wins the forced diamond return via finesse, and runs trumps and the Ace of diamonds.

In the three card ending N/S hold 1 heart and 2 clubs, and West, who must keep 2 clubs, is therefore squeezed down to the same distribution, allowing a heart throw in and club endplay.

East can make it more interesting by going up with the spade queen on the second round.  Declarer ducks, and when a trump is returned, declarer finds himself possibly a trick short, having not had time to finesse in diamonds (since the entries were needed to lead up in spades).  But, no problem, declarer runs all the trumps, pitching the T98 of clubs (important!), and then plays the A-Q of diamonds in this position.

Dealer: Vul:		North
		♠
		♥	9
		♦	T4
		♣	3
West				East
♠				♠
♥	K?			♥
♦				♦	K987
♣	J6?			♣
		South
		♠
		♥	5
		♦	Q
		♣	Q7

On the queen of diamonds, west is strip-squeezed down to the same 1 heart and 2 clubs from earlier positions.

If East wins, the forced diamond return (south pitching a heart) squeezes West between clubs and hearts.  If instead, East ducks, west is thrown in via hearts.  Notice that dummy had to keep 3 diamonds for the first case, and one heart for the squeeze, thus could keep only one club.  If the club 3 had not been kept, then when thrown in, West could return a low club stranding declarer in dummy with a diamond loser.

You may wonder what if West had returned a diamond at trick two, thus threatening a diamond ruff if East puts up the queen of spades on the first or second round of spades. However, having failed to knock-out the ace of hearts, declarer can just win that lead, and play A-K and a spade. Now there is time to develop clubs by losing a trick to East.

Test your Double Dummy

December 22nd, 2009  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  2 Comments 

Dealer: Vul:		North
		♠	QT987
		♥	KT8765
		♦	2
		♣	A
West				East
♠	J654			♠	32
♥	32			♥	AJ94
♦	T9876			♦	43
♣	32			♣	T9876
		South
		♠	AK
		♥	Q
		♦	AKQJ5
		♣	KQJ54

South plays 6N on the lead of the diamond Ten. What is the road to 12 tricks? I will answer via a comment!

More squeeze defense.

December 16th, 2009  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  No Comments 

Dealer: W Vul: ALL, Imps		North
		♠	KT5
		♥	AJ9
		♦	K96
		♣	7642
West				East
♠	–			♠	874
♥	KQT7432			♥	85
♦	A53			♦	QJT42
♣	AQ5			♣	JT8
		South
		♠	AQJ9632
		♥	6
		♦	87
		♣	K93

West	North	East	South
1H	P	P	2S
3H	4S	All Pass

That last post, evoked memories of one of my favorite ‘strategy’ hands, where declarer and defender are locked in a battle to outplay each other.

2S by South was intermediate, implying a hand that would would open and rebid three, so North had to bid the Vul game.

The K of hearts was lead, and declarer, counting 9 winners (with the almost sure DA on side), won the Ace and ran 7 rounds of spades.

When West kept ♥K ♦Ax ♣AQ, a diamond up finished the job.  Win or duck the Ace of diamonds, they would be thrown in with a red-suit to lead clubs at trick 12 for the game-going trick.

How should West have defended?

Well what if, like my last post, they pitched the ace of diamonds, to create an entry to their partner’s hand?  OK, but what do they hold at the previous trick when planning to pitch the♦ Ace?

♥K ♦Axx ♣AQ ?  No good.  Declarer keeps ♥J ♦KT♣xxx in the dummy, and ducks a club. A heart is ruffed, and another club ducked, and dummy wins a diamond and has a 3rd club to the King.  (or the opposite, if diamonds are played before hearts)

OK, so what about ♥K ♦Ax ♣AQx. Keeping the low club to avoid that last line?  Also no good, declarer just leads a diamond up like in the 5-card ending, and discards a club on the heart to allow West to break clubs.

No, we must go back to trick 7:  ♥K ♦Axx ♣AQx.  The ace of diamonds must be pitched on this trick, to avoid the 2 failed endings above.  Now if another trump is cashed, West can (and must) to let go a club.

Defending a Squeeze

December 11th, 2009  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  No Comments 

With the Edgar Kaplan regional coming up, this hand from a few years ago came back to me.

		North
		♠	Q984
		♥	K8642
		♦	K82
		♣	3
West				East
♠	T63			♠	K2
♥	AJ75			♥	Q9
♦	7			♦	QJ96543
♣	Q9864			♣	75
		South
		♠	AJ75
		♥	T3
		♦	AT
		♣	AKJT2

Interesting that East did not bid his 7-by-2, since I have never seen a seven-card suit not worth bidding…  The play in 4♠ was: diamond lead, won with the King, (Jack).  Club to the Ace, club ruff, spade to the Jack.

Here, I was perhaps careless, as I tried to ruff another club with the 9.  The train started to derail as East over-ruffed with the King and then lead the 9 of diamonds for his partner who ruffed out my Ace with the ♠6.  (which gave away that West also held the Ten, since East would not have ruffed with the King).

Interestingly at this point both West and South have perfect count on the hand, since they have counted East to exactly 2 spades, 7 diamonds and 2 clubs, and therefore 2 hearts.

Now a two-part defense was required to set.  First the heart trap must be avoided:  Ace and another allows me to ruff a third heart back to hand, score the club King and crossruff (west must follow to 2 heart plays and 2 clubs.).

A low heart looks attractive, but dummy wins, and a diamond can be led and a heart shaked (loser-on-loser).  Then when East leads another diamond, a club is discarded from hand, ruffed in dummy, heart ruff to hand while West must follow, and the last trump drawn and a claim.  (A heart return creates a simple cross ruff, cashing the club-King along the way)

No, a trump must be returned to prevent that club ruff.  However now when I overtook, and played two more trumps, West was squeeze-endplayed:

		North
		♠	–
		♥	K864
		♦	8
		♣	–
West				East
♠	–			♠	–
♥	AJ7			♥	Q9
♦	–			♦	Q65
♣	Q9			♣	–
		South
		♠	5
		♥	T3
		♦
		♣	KJ

When they pitched a heart (dummy a diamond), I now lead a heart up, and they could either win and give the rest to me or dummy, so they ducked to dummy’s king, but a second heart left them to lead into my club tenace.

However West missed a neat play, as they were not really squeezed.  At trick nine [above], they needed to jettison the Ace of hearts, transferring the heart winner to partner and some good diamonds.  (Push board).

Play for what you need.

December 9th, 2009  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  No Comments 

I believe it is one of Kelsey’s themes, when all looks bad, to play for a lie of the cards that provides the right number of tricks.  And so, what is your line on this one?

North ♠ T953 ♥ 86 ♦ K5 ♣ AK863 South ♠ KQ ♥ AKT ♦ 76432 ♣ J42

West North East South P P 1♥ P P 2♣ P 3N

Playing in a Junior event, I had my bidding shoes on, so I bid a vul 3N opposite a passed hand, figuring that with the auction, I would know where all the cards were.

When dummy hit after a low heart lead (low, Jack), things were not looking good.  At the time, I thought the club suit lost, and looked for other ways to reach nine tricks.   I thought if RHO held AJ of spades, and LHO a single card in the A of diamonds, I could take 2 clubs, 1 diamond, 3 hearts and 3 spades.  The full hand:

Dealer: W Vul: NS		North
		♠	T953
		♥	86
		♦	K5
		♣	AK863
West				East
♠	J64			♠	A842
♥	742			♥	QJ953
♦	J98			♦	AQT
♣	Q975			♣	T
		South
		♠	KQ
		♥	AKT
		♦	76432
		♣	J42

As you can see, I failed miserably.  If West has 3 hearts and an Ace, modern players, especially juniors will raise.  Additionally, playing for exactly AJ of spades is a pretty slim chance.

Perhaps then, it is much more sensible to play for just 5 club tricks (to go with the expect 3 hearts and 1 spade).

How do you take 5 tricks with AK863 opposite J42?

There are 2 options.  Run the Jack to pin the T9 doubleton, or run the Jack to pin singleton T or 9, then return to hand and finesse again.  This is where our friend restricted choice comes in (suggesting that stiff T or 9 is more likely than exactly T9 doubleton), couple that with the knowledge that East has 5 hearts and probably 2 more aces (meaning he has less slots in his hand to hold more cards, increasing the chance of him having 1 not 2 clubs): so the pair of 4-1 breaks is the right one to play for.

In order to do this, after Jack of Clubs, Queen, King, T/9.  You return to the closed hand with a spade and must play a club to the SIX! (lest the 97 set up for a trick)  Now a heart to the ten, the last heart, and a club to the 8 yields 5 clubs 3 hearts and a spade.

Joel Wooldridge declared this hand in a different match, and found the winning route to +600.

Hindsight

December 8th, 2009  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  No Comments 

In my first post, I shared a defensive triumph, so it seems fitting for my second, to lament a defensive failure.

Imps Dealer:S Vul: All		North
		♠
		♥
		♦
		♣
West				East
♠				♠	Q5
♥				♥	QT64
♦				♦	96
♣				♣	AJT84
		South
		♠	T842
		♥	9
		♦	AKQ52
		♣	KQ7

Lead: ♦4

After the lead of the 4 of diamonds (3rd best), I won the Queen, noticed declarer’s 7, and put on my thinking cap.  Based on Declarer’s quick accept of the game-try, they are likely to have the AK in both majors, unless they have some shape.  Extremes like 5=6 in the majors, or maybe 5-5 in the red suits suggest that we can’t beat them, or if we can, it is not going away.

What about hands missing the K of spades?  Against 3=6=2=2, if I don’t shift to a spade, declarer will be able to duck a club, then ruff the clubs out, draw trump ending in dummy and enjoy 2 clubs for 2 spade discards.  So I cashed another diamond, partner playing the 3, confirming that declarer had started with 2 or 4 diamonds, and shifted to a spade.  The full deal:

Imps Dealer:S Vul: All		North
		♠	J976
		♥	J87
		♦	J843
		♣	63
West				East
♠	AK3			♠	Q5
♥	AK432			♥	QT64
♦	T7			♦	96
♣	952			♣	AJT84
		South
		♠	T842
		♥	9
		♦	AKQ52
		♣	KQ7

Declarer won in dummy, drew trumps in three rounds, and finished the spades. Then a club to dummy’s Jack finished me. I had to lead clubs or concede the ruff-sluff. Do you see the winning defense?

At trick two, I had to underlead in diamonds to allow partner to play a club through dummy, while I still had a safe exit in a major. Should I have done so, when declarer might have won their Jack as the game-going trick in a 2=6=2=3 hand missing a major-suit King? (Declarer can now cash their winners and put my partner in with their King to lead a club through, and again I am end-played)

Ahh, hindsight.

Visualization Defense

December 7th, 2009  ~  Paul Bethe  ~  4 Comments 

Despite not playing as much bridge as I would like to, I still seem to have an array of interesting hands rattling around upstairs.  So I will try to share them here, in case anyone is reading.

This first hand is one of my favorites, as it highlights visualization, based on listening to the auction.  I originally wrote about this one in the Daily Bulletin in Birmingham ’00.

Dealer: W Vul: All		North
		♠	J843
		♥	T632
		♦	T932
		♣	8
West				East
♠	T65			♠	Q92
♥	AQ			♥	KJ8
♦	AJ865			♦	K
♣	T72			♣	QJ9653
		South
		♠	AK7
		♥	9754
		♦	Q74
		♣	AK4

Imagine my surprise to hear West open 1NT (although it was 10-12), and then East bid 3♣, invitational.  I passed smoothly, and then had to think as partner lead the three of spades, and then dummy was tabled and quickly ducked.  Declarer must have all of the missing high-cards, except (I hope) the Jack of spades, since partner lead 4th best.  I reasoned that if I could lead hearts each time I gained the lead, I could establish the setting trick.  So I won the King, and shifted to a heart, won by declarer’s Ace, and then I lead a heart again after winning the first round of clubs.  Declarer won the Queen, and continued clubs.  I ducked one round, and won the second, partner pitching a spade and a heart.

But wait, I visualized that if I stayed on course, clearing the heart suit, declarer would run all of dummy’s clubs, and what would I keep in the three card ending.  If I stiffed the Ace of spades he could cash the King of diamonds and throw me in with a spade as a stepping-stone to the Ace of diamonds.  But if I kept two spades, he could overtake the King of diamonds, my Queen falling, and enjoy the Jack.  The worst part, is that this expert declarer could not go wrong, as on the King of diamonds, either my Queen would appear, or not, so there would be no guesswork involved.

Then (about 3 minutes later), I saw it.  The squeeze relied on overtaking in diamonds, so I switched to a diamond, relying on my placement of the Jack of spades with partner.  Now dummy would be end-played at trick 12 in spades.  At this point Declarer also saw the position, so he made an attempt to sneak one by, winning the Ace of diamonds to lead a low spade to the nine.  If I won, and did not play a diamond, dummy would be good (for the contract).

However my partner (my dad), was on top of his game and inserted the Jack of spades.  Now the Queen of spades was won by the Ace, the diamond Queen cashed to set the contract, and a diamond return, partner still scoring his Ten for down 2, as he was locked from the dummy (thanks to the Jack of spades play).